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26 thoughts on “Vintage Style Seiko – SNKM97K”

Wow, that is indeed a beauty, Thomas! Why did it take Seiko so long to realize that there’s no shortage of cushion cased Seiko collectors around the world? I really like the green dial and Seiko is very adept at making semi-matte (or semi-shiny) green and blue dials.
The SNMK97K is not marketed under the Seiko 5 family and it’s very rare for the company to do that. If I’m not mistaken, the large sized, SNFK05K,07K,09K and 11K were the last 7s26 models that were not sold as a Seiko 5 or a diver’s watch. This watch’s dial layout and hands remind me of one of the Orient 3-Star low end automatics though. There appears to be no lume, therefore this is designed as a dress watch.
Is the SNMK97K the only one of its kind or are there other variations of this timepiece? 🙂

Thanks for including the catalog pics of the SNKM97K’s brethren. The scanned image looks like the catalog was really from the 70s! 🙂 I’m surprised that Seiko is now using a 4-character prefix for these models. “SNK” models have been mostly the base Seiko 5 automatics and except for JDM models, Seiko usually sticks to the three-character prefix for their international (non-Japan market) watches.
I guess they’re running out of letters since the company has used up all the numbers with the “SNK” prefix; therefore they had to use “SNKA” at one time. The letters “I” and “O”, to my best knowledge have never been used as they can be mistaken for the numbers “1” and “0” respectively.
I remember there were a few folks on the SCWF discussion board who particularly didn’t like the “Seiko 5” logo – probably for the same reasons some people don’t like the Orient crest. 🙂

I was just at the mall doing some last minute holiday shopping and happened to see 1 SNKN01 just sitting pretty in the glass of the JCPenny retail store. I had to put it on and told my wife it looked so vintage and loved the look with the leather band. Sure enough it was on sale and she got it for me for Xmas. It is back in the box and now I can’t touch it/wear it till I open it on Xmas day. Def a great find walking through the mall.

Not sure if my previous comment went through since my Safari force quit. I mentioned that I happened to be doing some holiday shopping today at the mall and my wife and I walked into our retail store JCPenny. I happened to see 1 SNKN01 just sitting there standing out from all the other watches and I had to put it on. I told my wife it looked so vintage and loved the look with the black leather band. It was on sale and it is now my Xmas present. What a great random find and can’t wait till I can open it again to wear on Xmas Day!

yeoman,
my friend who collect seiko longer than me told me the 7s26 movement inside the gear is a lot of plastic gear which wear off eventually if not wear on a regular basis. if one adjust the date movement often, it will wear off the wheel. what ur thoughts on this?

I understand that it uses a plastic gear for the day mechanism. I am of the opinion that it will last for many years if you use it correctly. To avoid breaking the plastic component, it is best to avoid adjusting the day/date when the time is between 10.30pm to 3.30am.